Netgear Nighthawk AX12 - RAX120 - AX6000 Router

Last Modified: Fri, 20 May 2022 16:23:36 +0000 ; Created: Mon, 16 May 2022 02:58:52 +0000

Netgear Nighthawk AX12 - RAX120 - AX6000 Router

I would not recommend this router. It will randomly reboot during the day, everyday. It might be load related. In theory you can use debug.htm to force the internal fan on all the time, but that should not be necessary. The area where mine was stored was sufficiently cooled as well. A web search revealed lots of people with this problem. I had a v2 hardware device with the latest firmware (V1.2.3.28 as of 2022-05-20). Disappointing as it had improved wireless performance over my older R7800, but for the cost the router should be more stable.

v2 of the device has OFDMA. If you have an FCC ID on the bottom of the router near the top left of the sticker you have this. You can also confirm by the Advanced, Administration, Router Status (192.168.1.1/RST_status.htm) page. Also cat /module_name

The OEM firmware runs a customized OpenWrt Chaos Calmer 15.05.1 (RAX120-V1.2.3.28+r49254). No standard OpenWrt builds were available as of May 2022.

The GUI limits a number of configuration options (e.g. SSID with non-ASCII characters, like emojis). The /debug.htm page also no longer offers Telnet. You can still gain Telnet access via the magic packet method on the local LAN.

https://github.com/Red54/telnetenable-r9000

You can find the LAN MAC address on the /RST_status.htm page. Use the LAN (Router Status box); not the WAN MAC.

Installing a custom SSID:
(Note that if you use forbidden characters then the GUI setup page will no longer work)
(JavaScript bypasses or server-side [e.g. Burp proxy manipulation] will not work. You have to telnet.)

  1. Login via telnet
  2. config set wl_ssid=YOUR_2.4GHZ_SSID_HERE
  3. config set wla_ssid=YOUR_5.0GHZ_SSID_HERE
  4. config commit
  5. Reboot or /sbin/wifi

If you use unicode or emoji characters they may show on your command line as "?", but the character code is working.

You will see familiar OpenWrt uci /etc/config files, but modifying those (even with rw overlay) will not persist a reboot. You will find nvram empty. You want the config command.